


Siren

by yourbasicbitchsusan



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Because Ashton is old af, Cashton, Death, Family, Flashbacks to the 20th Century, Fluff, Homophobic Language, Humans, Humans becoming Monsters, M/M, Mermaids, Monsters, Muke - Freeform, Past Relationship(s), Smut, Swearing, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-07-19 00:34:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16129910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourbasicbitchsusan/pseuds/yourbasicbitchsusan
Summary: ❝Your voice is beautiful, you know?❞❝Shut up, I'm trying to eat you.❞-or the one where Calum saves his friends and in return gets turned into a flesh-eating monster.





	1. ONE

Thinking back to that day, it was supposed to be a party, a birthday party specifically. For one of Ben's friends, and he was nice enough to invite Calum and his best friend, Mali. It was supposed to be a fucking party.

All around him were drunk adults grinding on each other, sipping cheap beer and making out. Calum was ditched by everyone he knew there, so he sat by himself, sipping some apple juice that he pretended was beer. Calum was probably the only sober one on the boat.

Suddenly, the screams of laughter mixed with what sounded like fear caught Calum's attention. He shot up out of his seat and tapped his tall, drunk friend on the shoulder, "Jack? What's going on?" He shouted, hoping Jack could hear him over the loud crowd of stumbling young adults.

Jack giggled, his shaking finger pointing at the ocean,"Ben jumped!" He hiccuped.

"He  _what_?"

Calum shoved through the numerous amount of people and peered over the side, seeing his friend, Jack's brother, swimming in the freezing waters. Ben seemed unaffected though, as he slowly swam towards a little opening of a cave.

As Calum's anxiety skyrocketed, Jack rambled and stuttered over pointless details, "He kept g-going on about this beautiful girl a-and he..." He made a diving gesture with his hands and started cackling.

Running his fingers through his hair, Calum kept his attention on Ben as he asked, "Why did he jump?"

"N-No... Fuck, Cal!" Calum thought Jack finally came to his senses and was scared, until he saw his friend puking over the edge of the boat into the deep waters.

Sighing angrily, Calum tried his best to follow Ben from the edge of the boat, "Ben!" He shouted, desperately trying to gain the attention of his friend.

The water wasn't that far from the deck of the boat, so Calum could somewhat make out Ben's words, "She's so beautiful." He said, gurgling slightly from his mouth full of water. He didn't seem to stop swimming, if anything he was more determined.

Calum scanned the deck quickly, hoping to find a life jacket, a rope, anything. The universe seemed to be on his side, there was a little life saver stacked behind a keg. The tanned boy flung it over the edge of the boat, "Ben, hey!" He called out, "Grab on to this!"

But all Calum got in response was, "W-Wanna meet her." Ben didn't even look at the floating lifesaver, he just kept moving his arms.

Ben turned out to be the least of Calum's problems.

The boat crashed into something, causing half the people on board to lurch forward, bumping into each other and falling on the floor. Calum stumbled and held on to the side for support, "Shit!" He shouted, trying to adjust to the shaking party yacht. Mali was supposed to be helping the crew, supposed to be making sure everything was okay. She was great with water and boats; which immediately alerted Calum to the fact something was  _wrong_.

Calum scrambled up, holding onto the edge of the boat as he walked. He made his way up to where Mali said she'd be, helping the yacht steer. The tanned boy started shouting out, trying to get Mali, wherever she was, to hear him over the crowd of wasted people, "What'd we hit? Mali! Mali, what happened?" Then he spotted her; she wasn't even looking at damages, or the mast. Mali was looking out to sea.

"M-Mali?" Calum stuttered, reaching out to touch her arm and pull her closer to him. She was standing dangerously close to the edge of the boat and it made the boy's stomach churn.

Mali seemed to be in a daze, her mouth was smiling in admiration and her eyes were glassy. "He's... he's so gorgeous. Calum, look at him..." Mali's voice scared him the most; what used to be a voice full of laughter and warmness was now replaced with a dead, monotone one.

Calum pushed down his fear and put his hands on each side of her shoulders, "At who? Mali, no one is there!"

"He's waving at me - see? Do you think he likes me?"

Calum followed her gaze but he was met with nothing, just empty sea and rocks. He expected this kind of behavior from Ben and Jack but not Mali, Mali was the sensible one. Mali was the one that kept the three of them in line, and now she was seeing things that weren't there and Calum couldn't hide his worry even slightly.

Mali spoke again, shaking off Calum's hands and stepping closer to the edge of the boat, "Need to... Need to meet him." She stumbled, her words were slurred as if she had been drinking. Maybe she had been, Calum couldn't understand why she's acting like this otherwise.

Before he could pull her back into his arms, she jumped and plummeted into the water. Calum's blood turned to ice and his voice shook as he screamed, "Mali!"

She was swimming now, back from where we came. Mali's eyes seemed to be set in the middle of nowhere, but she was swimming like she  _had_ to get there. Calum shook his thoughts out of his head and shook one of the only ones who weren't giggling their asses off. His hair was greasy and he looked pretty worn out but Calum didn't care. He pointed to Mali and glared at the boy, "Help me get her up here! Now!" He commanded, eyes darting to find another life saver. If he couldn't find one, Calum would end up going in after her and dragging her back kicking and screaming.

"Mali!" He called again, desperately trying to get her attention.  _Jesus Christ, she's going to get hypothermia_ , Calum thought to himself worriedly. After the boy who's help he had previously demanded for had disappeared, Calum sighed anxiously. He took off his shirt and was prepared to jump in when he was tapped rapidly on the shoulder.

Jack. He seemed to be less drunk and more petrified as he gestured around the boat, voice laced with confusion and concern, "Calum, look! What's wrong with everybody?"

It wasn't just Mali and Ben. Everyone had begun jumping off the boat, there were screams of unrest in the water; people pushing and shoving each other to get where they wanted to go quickly. Calum began to feel like this was some sort of prank he wasn't apart of.

He turned towards where Mali was once before and his heart stopped momentarily when she wasn't anywhere in his sight. Calum's breath starting shaking even more and when he tried to grab Jack's arm to keep from collapsing, the tanned boy saw Jack grinning stupidly, leaning over the edge and taking his shoes off in a hurry.

Adrenaline coursed through Calum and he forgot his troubles with his breathing, he rushed over towards Jack and grabbed his arm and pulled back fiercely, "Oh, no you don't!"

"C-Calum, she's so pretty! Dibs! Let me introduce myself!"

"You're on a fucking boat!" Calum screamed at him, but Jack wasn't paying him any attention. He struggled relentlessly against Calum's grip and became whiny, almost in pain before leaning over and biting Calum's hand, causing the boy to cradle it as a reflex.

Jack wasted no time and jumped.

Calum peered over and saw Jack dive deeper into the water, not even swimming on the surface like the others.

"Everyone's gone mad..." He muttered. There were only a handful of people left on the boat among Calum, and they seemed to find the whole situation funny. Pointing and giggling while still taking gulps of beer.

At the corner of his eye, Calum saw a flash of movement and his neck darted to the side quickly. What the boy saw was enough to make him relieved and also more terrified than before. His best friend was laying flat on her back, eyes open wide and mouth set in a small smile as she floated on the ocean water alone. "Mali!" He shouted, jumping over the railing without another second thought.

It was freezing, ice gripped his whole body and froze his muscles, making them heavy enough for him to drown. His brain was screaming, begging for Calum to find warmth. How everyone was swimming around easily, he had no idea. Calum pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and tried to focus on the task at hand, which was finding-

Angels.

That's what Calum decided, the heavenly voice calling out to him must be from an angel. It was filled with syrupy honey and it carried the voice of flowers. The voice paralyzed him, making his mind and muscles turn in its direction without another thought. Angels.

Calum's mouth was gaping and suddenly he couldn't stop smiling. The rational part of his brain diverted back to Mali momentarily until the voice grew louder, stronger. Calum was helpless, he was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. "Woah. Be there in a second, Mali. Don't move, I'll be right back." He murmured absent-mindedly, swimming away from his friend and towards a small rock.

Calum might have been swimming for hours, days, months; he had no clue, but when Calum finally reached the small rock and glanced around him anxiously, looking for the source of the melody, he felt an arm grab his shoulder and  _pull_.

The voice never stopped, even as the pretty man was holding him. He was gorgeous, but the man's voice brought tears to Calum's eyes. As the pretty man held him up, scrutinizing him like a doll, Calum spoke with a wide grin, "You have a pretty voice."

"Shut up, I'm trying to eat you."

Calum giggled, "Voice is p-pretty." One of the man's blond curls brushed Calum's face and his mind became even more blurry and confused than before, "... eat me? I'm not..." He trailed off, looking at the man closely.

The man's teeth were the sharpest things he had ever seen. Like glass, like piranha teeth. When the teeth got closer to Calum's body, the tanned boy screamed in protest and attempted to flail wildly out of his arms, "Jesus Christ!" He cried.

"Get off me! Mali! Jack! Ben! Don't trust them-"

The man brought his hand to Calum's mouth and the human went still against it, shivering."Shh. I won't hurt you," the golden haired angel said, eyes glancing around him before diverting them back to Calum.

Calum scoffed, but it ended up as more of a squeak, "You just said you were going to eat me!"

"Well, only a little."

The tanned boy shook his head rapidly, hands shaking horribly as the wind whipped around their bare backs, Calum felt trapped against it. "Whatever! Eat me, okay? I don't care - just save Mali a-and Jack. Ben was always a bit of a runt but save him too; Jack would be devastated-" He rambled.

The musical voice was back but Calum tried so hard to block it out he ended up sweating. The pretty man spoke to him again, his words rolling together beautifully, like his voice was art itself. "But your friends aren't trying to save you. Why help them?"

"Because you're fucking with their brains!" Calum growled, attempting to escape the man's clutches but to no avail. Instead, he was whacked on the head. Hard.

He turned angrily towards the pretty man, who was glaring at him, "Don't swear." The man's voice was now laced with warning and danger.

Calum's mouth dropped and he considered letting out a baffled laugh before deciding against it and glared at the man back, "Are you  _serious_? Let me go, damn it! I need to save-"

"Dear, god. Will you  _shut up_?"

Calum shut up. The man's tone was no longer kind, it was angry and irritated. Calum thought he was seconds away from being eaten alive in the middle of the ocean until the man did a unique noise with his mouth; it was a high pitched noise but also sounded vaguely like words, but in another sort of dialect."What did you do?" Calum ground out nervously, pinching his arm harshly so he wouldn't do something embarrassing like cry.

The pretty man gave him no response other than the finger, while the other hand was on Calum's waist, gripping so tightly Calum thought it would dislocate.

"Hey, answer me!" Calum said through gritted teeth.

Finally, the golden haired monster that looked and sounded like an angel turned to him and whispered so softly that Calum had to strain to hear,"Do you want to save your friend's lives?" The blond asked, eyes searching Calum's for any sort of lie.

_What kind of question was that?_ Calum thought, answered with a nod but it didn't seem to please the monster. "Do you?" He asked again, with such authority it made Calum flinch.

"Fu-Yes!" He cried in exasperation.

"If you do you have a price to pay to our community. Your friends lives in exchange for you."

"Will I die?" Calum asked softly, thoughts of being eaten alive crossing his mind like a tidal wave. He would never see Mali again, he would never know if she was  _okay_. Or Jack, or Ben.

The blond cocked his head to the side, glaring still but only slightly; his expression was softer, "Does it matter if your friends will live?"

Gritting his teeth in irritation, the tanned boy came to his conclusion. If he didn't do anything Mali and his friends would die anyway, this time he had at least an opportunity to help. Calum didn't hesitate any longer, "Fine, if they're alive and  _safe._ I'll do whatever you freaks want."


	2. TWO

“Oi! Over here.”

Calum heard the monster’s voice from behind him and he sighed in exasperation; they had both spent the last twenty minutes practically swimming in the middle of  _nowhere_ , and Calum was starting to get anxious about when he would wake up from his nightmare. That’s what the rational part of his brain told him, that he was experiencing an abnormal nightmare because this couldn’t possibly be real. But a small, mean part of his brain reminded him how there was no way Calum’s subconscious could make something as crazy as this up. Shaking the thought way, Calum continued slowly paddling towards the tailed-monster in the freezing cold waters.

That was another thing the human noticed, the blond haired man had a tail. Like something you’d picture a mermaid to have, only more rough looking. And with that tail, the merman - at least that’s what Calum assumed he was - was unusually fast, disappearing and reappearing within a blink of an eye.

Frankly, it was irritating.

“I can’t swim that fast, dude.” Calum called out grumpily, “I don’t have a freaking tail, only legs.”

In the far distance, the tanned boy could see a rock in which the monster was perched on; he looked impatient. Calum took a deep breath, ignoring his tired muscles and strained to catch up with the monster while he still could.

“Your friends are alive,” the blond said, acknowledging Calum’s heavy pants with a scowl of irritation; he seemed to be good at that. However, Calum ignored his disdain and focused on his words only, already feeling some of the tension lift of his chest. “All of them?” He questioned.

“Yes. Even the ‘runt’, Bob.”

“Ben,” Calum corrected automatically. His cheeks flushing when he realized how unimportant the distinction was to either of them. Clearing his throat, Calum pulled himself up onto the rock next to the rock and looked at the merman carefully, “So what is this price I have to pay?”

“You’ll become like us,” The blond answered, looking out to the sea which they were surrounded by. His mind appeared to be elsewhere.

Calum chuckled humorlessly and mumbled under his breath, “A human-eating mermaid, just what I wanted to be when I grew up-”

“A siren,” the man said with a cruel glare.

“A siren, whatever. You still tried to eat me,” the tanned boy grumbled.

This time, the blond gave him a wide grin, “Only a little, remember?” His mood seemed to alter in a nanosecond, Calum didn’t know how to handle him.

The merman - no, siren - must have took Calum’s silence and frustration as terror as he said, “Backing out, human?”

And yes, Calum was scared. He didn’t want to become a siren, he didn’t want to eat people. It was crazy, all he wanted to do was hug Mali and ask her to sing for him. She had such a nice voice. But then it clicked, his friends could still be hurt. Mali could still be hurt. There was no way Calum was going to let that happen. “No, no. Not if my friends are going to be hurt.”

Calum stuttered over the following words, “H-How do I become a siren?”

The siren dived into the water without a response, splashing water in the tanned boy’s face. Calum was coughing water out of his throat when the golden-haired beauty returned, “Drink this.” He ordered, shoving a vial of green liquid in his personal space.

“What is it?” Calum asked hesitantly as he gripped the potion harshly to stop it from slipping out of his wet hands.

“The first step.”

 _This is for Ben_ , Calum thought as he unscrewed the lid. His hands were shaking like crazy and Calum prayed that in these vast waters, everything would be okay. Calum brought the bottle up to his lips, feeling the cold brush of glass on his tongue.  _This is for Jack,_ he thought as his breath shuddered. He eyed the man before him who was waiting patiently, hazel eyes glittered with excitement although his face appeared stoic.

 _This is for Mali_ , Calum thought finally before pouring the liquid down his throat. It tasted of freshly-squeezed lemons and a hint of some sort of metallic taste. Nevertheless, it wasn’t as disgusting as Calum had expected it to be. “Now what?” Calum asked, licking his lips.

The hazel eyes stared at him happily, and now it seemed the corner of the man’s mouth pricked up unconsciously, as if he was fighting a smile, “Now I kill you.”

“Wait, wha-” Calum began before he saw the siren’s hands quickly go for his neck. Then he entered a world of darkness.

*

Calum’s mind was fuzzy as he awoke, his head was pounding angrily and when he opened his eyes, the bright light made it worse, “Uhhh.” Calum grumbled miserably.

He found himself on the rock alongside the siren; Calum propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at his very human legs in confusion, expecting a tail.

“Be grateful I made it quick,” the golden boy told him, eyes darting to the sky as if he was expecting something.

The situation slammed into Calum and he rounded on the siren accusingly, “Did you snap my  _neck_? Holy shit-”

He felt a thud on his forehead, intensifying the raging in his mind. Calum saw the man’s arm retract as he glared at Calum as if the tanned boy had just committed treason, “Don’t swear.”

And because of his mortifying headache that made him want to vomit  _and_ the man pissing him off, Calum responded with, “Fuck you.”

*

Calum awoke with a start this time, trying to shake off the incredibly cold feeling he had experienced when he was in the darkened world for the second time. Anger flooded through the boy as he saw the perpetrator floating on his back, unaffected by Calum’s unconscious state that he had caused.

“Did you just do it again?” Calum asked, his tone gruff and annoyed.

“No swearing on my rock,” the siren responded carelessly, flipping off his back so he could face Calum upright.

Despite his heavy annoyance previously, it seemed to dissipate when Calum noticed his tail. It was green, rough and scaly, much like the hazel-eyed man who was watching Calum’s reaction with interest.  _Tail, tail, tail._ It was like a guttural punch when he realized he was no longer human, he was the same kind of monster who wanted to eat his family alive. A freak, just like the man watching him. Swallowing back his heavy desire to cry, Calum timidly asked, “H-How am I alive? You snapped my neck.  _Twice_.” He couldn’t bare to look at the siren anymore; Calum was interested in his dynamics before, the way that although his voice wasn’t ringing in his head, pushing him to do his bidding, it was still sweet and lyrical, much like maple syrup. But now as Calum realized that he was the same, he could never see his mother again or Mali or Jack-

The siren responded, breaking Calum’s panicked thoughts, “The potion you drank, it strengthened your body; prepared it so I could snap your neck and kiss you,” he stated boredly, his previous interest in Calum’s reaction had faded and instead the man’s attention went to his own tail as he moved it softly, causing small movement in the dark water.

Calum nodded his head in understanding before he realized properly what he had said, and the tanned boy suddenly felt as if he was still choking on salt water, “You fucking  _what_?”

At the siren’s harsh glare, Calum shrunk further into the rock, not wanting to spend more time with a snapped neck. Calum whispered lowly, as if the incident was a joke, “You kissed me?”

“Yes. My DNA and yours combined, which was the saliva helps the potion to not wear off, allowing it to turn you slowly into a siren. Be prepared to have black and blue blood.”

Calum blinked in disbelief, “Black  _and_ blue?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you have to  _kiss_ me?” Calum asked, his tongue wrapping around the unfamiliar feeling. He had never kissed someone before, and Calum felt a little pang in his heart when he realized that for his first kiss he wasn’t even conscious.

The siren didn’t seem to read Calum’s emotions, instead he rolled his eyes at the words the boy had used. “Humans. Kissing and sex is so intimate. We use it for pleasure only.”

Shrugging off the twisting sensation in his chest, Calum questioned him again, “What about babies? How are you born?”

“We aren’t born, only turned.”

Calum gaped in awe, “So, you’re like half-mermaid, half-vampire?”

His head whipped around to face Calum, “Call us mermaids one more time kid, I dare you.” The hazel-eyed man said, a small growl sounding by the end of his threat.

Calum looked at his tail awkwardly, trying to move it around so he could swim in the sea, but it was harder to move than it looked. The siren rolled his eyes and pursed his lips at Calum’s struggle and said,“We don’t drink blood anyway, we only eat flesh.”

“Oh, that’s much better,” Calum responded, a small laugh coming from his mouth. But then he frowned, “Why didn’t you eat me?”

“You broke through the call of the siren; you wanted to save your friends. Even though you knew there’d be consequences. We turn warriors.”

Everything he was saying reminded Calum of some cheesy movie and he just wanted to scream in the man’s face; everything about this whole situation was so stupid. He had an overwhelming urge to cut off his tail and not feel so tainted.

“So you let my friends go?” Calum asked tightly, pushing his feelings of anger down to focus on the people he cared about. He wasn’t going to get his neck snapped again because Mr. Dudley Do Right couldn’t handle a few curses.

“I swear,” the man responded. Calum was instantly relieved, and although the siren had certainly done nothing of the sort to make Calum trust his word, the simple promise made his chest flutter with hope and not despair.

Trying to change the subject, the newly transformed siren asked, “Do you… Do you guys have names?”

“Of course, we were human once too. My name is Ashton.”

Ashton. It wasn’t Calum’s first choice, he was expecting a ‘Bryce’ or perhaps a ‘Jackson’. But the name seemed to fit him immediately, like someone had finally tuned the guitar and it didn’t sound so horrendous anymore. Names were a human aspect, and Calum cherished the fact that he could still keep a small part of humanity inside him, even if it was just as simple as a name.

Finally, Calum asked what he’d been wanting to know ever since he had learned he had a tail. “So… if I’m a siren do I still get affected when they use their… ‘lure’?” The anxiety bubbled in Calum’s chest as he awaited an answer. If he was affected by Ashton’s heavenly voice for the rest of his life, he wasn’t sure if he could make it.

Ashton swam over closer to the rock and frowned deeply, “Lure? No, you idiot. We’re immune.”

Calum let out a sigh of irritation, “My name isn’t idiot.”

“Calvin, right?”

His annoyance flared up higher, “Calum.”

“Well, then, Calum,” Ashton grinned, “What do you want to do first? Meet everyone else or practice using your call to eat peoples flesh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ this took ages lmao ]


	3. THREE

Calum didn’t know how in the hell he could breathe underwater.

After a thorough checking, the newly turned siren had discovered he didn’t have gills and yet, Ashton was telling him to quit overthinking and swim to the  _bottom of the sea_ with him. Calum thought Ashton was crazy.

Ashton had dragged Calum underwater kicking and screaming. It took about one minute until a purple-faced Calum inhaled and expected the feeling of water going down his throat causing him to drown inevitably because they was no way he’d make it to the surface this deep, the tanned boy found that it felt as if he was breathing air, it was effortless. He didn’t know  _how_  but Calum felt if he asked Ashton he’d just be rude and snarky in his response.

The next thing that startled him is when Ashton spoke. It made sense figuratively speaking considering they could breathe underwater, sirens could probably talk too. But it was odd. Ashton’s voice was clear and Calum refused to answer him back, fearing that he’d end up panicky and looking stupid again somehow.

Yeah, his first twenty minutes as a siren hadn’t gone so well.

Although Calum did find one thing he  _did_ like. Swimming with a tail was amazing, he was so exhilarated that his heart thumped rapidly, feeling as if it would burst out of Calum’s chest if he swam for any longer. Moving his tail was kind of awkward at first, it felt like dead weight and every movement made his whole body spiral along with the tail. But once he got used to it, it was the most stress-free, addicting action Calum had ever experienced.

Ashton was  _fast_ , even in his newly content state Calum had trouble catching up because the golden curly haired siren was moving like a bullet through the water, never once tiring or stopping. Calum wondered how long Ashton had to practice.

But sure enough, Ashton finally stopped and waited impatiently for Calum in the middle of nowhere. Calum approached him hesitantly and opened his mouth to speak, but Ashton cut him a glare that made him shut it in annoyance. Seconds later Ashton let out the worst sound Calum had ever heard, the high pitch ringing through his head made it feel like it would implode. It wasn’t anything like the dialect Calum had heard previously, nothing like the strange slurring of foreign languages; this one just felt like needles being jabbed into his ears. It was driving Calum crazy and he weakly reached out to tug at Ashton’s arm to get him to stop.

Ashton didn’t even look back at him, instead he closed his mouth and looked forward. Peace filled the tanned boy’s eardrums and he almost melted into the older siren in exhaustion.

He closed his eyes for one second, literally one fucking second, and when Calum opened his eyes again he was surrounded by at least fifty people with tails. Calum jolted and was instantly alert, analyzing everyone’s stances to see if they were a threat to the boy. No one, not even Ashton said anything but they were all perfectly fine with staring at him with a mixture of slight disgust and intrigue like he was a painting being critiqued.

Then a blonde siren swam forward and grinned at Calum like they had known each other for years, it was kind of unnerving.

“Hey, I’m Luke. Nice to meet you.”

He was looking into the most beautiful and captivating blue eyes he had ever seen. Luke’s eyes radiated excitement and warmth and it was such a nice change considering Calum was stuck with Ashton the entire day. And while the pretty blue eyed boy was cute and all, Calum couldn’t help but avert his eyes to the blood stained razor sharp teeth that were now faced towards him.

Luckily, a pale blond siren swam beside him giggling, tapping Luke’s shoulder, “Baby, teeth away.” He instructed. Immediately, Luke’s tongue felt around his teeth and when it got pricked, Luke flushed and retracted them without a moment’s haste, “Oops, sorry!”

Calum was speechless but Luke didn’t seem to pick up on it as he began talking rapidly, excitement never leaving the blue eyed boy’s demeanor, “You were from the small party boat, yeah? What was that song playing that was like, ‘Dada da dada da da da-’” He began humming the rest out of tune but the boy beside him rolled his eyes playfully and spoke up.

“I think Ashton had him by the time that song started.”

“Oh, bummer. You’re cute though, what’s your name?”

The tanned boy almost didn’t understand the question, trying to comprehend everything the two siren’s were sharing with each other. Calum looked behind him for Ashton, to find at least some minimal familiarity to soothe him but Ashton wasn’t anywhere in sight. Instantly Calum’s throat closed up and under the scrutiny of the two siren’s, he let out a strangled, “Calum.”

“Oooh, Calum. I like it,” Luke voiced happily, leaning onto the pale siren’s shoulder easily. He smiled at him and Calum tried to not think about the teeth that were facing his direction only moments ago.

The other sirens that had been looking at him seemed to have lost interest by that point as the only few that remained spoke to each other in hushed tones at a respectable distance from the trio. Ashton still wasn’t in the mix, Calum didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

Luke spoke up again, looking at him strangely, “You smell like a human still, it’s weird. I’ve never been so close to one without eating them before.”

 _Not relieved, not relieved!_ Calum’s brain screamed in alert as he tried his best to back away from Luke slowly. His throat was still constricted and the euphoria from swimming had faded, he missed Mali. He wanted to go home.

The unnamed boy who was next to him still, stifled a laugh and shook his head disapprovingly, “Luke,” he said abruptly, “Ash needs help with something, I’ll take care of the newbie.”

Unfazed, Luke nodded and gave them both a winning smile, “Be right back!”

Calum blinked once and Luke was gone. The amount of sirens reappearing and disappearing within a millisecond was distressing and the tanned siren thought he was starting to go more crazy then he already was.

“Sorry about Luke, he really likes new people,” the remaining siren said, the tiniest bit sheepish before holding out his hand, “I’m Michael.”

“Hi,” Calum spat out quickly, taking his hand immediately.

Michael eyed him with a small smile, a thoughtful expression crossing his features. “I’m pretty sure Ashton and Luke forget what it was like - you know, transitioning. Luke forgets about how hard it was and Ashton doesn’t care enough, but I remember.” Michael seemed off in a daze as he continued talking, Calum had a small sense he was imposing on a personal moment, but Michael didn’t say anything to Calum about that, he just continued, “You feel lost and dangerous, you feel like a threat. A part of you starts wondering if you all should have died together but… It gets easier, okay? The eating people things sucks but without them we’d die, and then the world would rot.”

Rot. The word itself brought distaste to his mouth; it was such a powerful adjective, and the imagery of bodies rotting and the world falling into chaos flashed Calum’s mind before he could stop it. Calum’s stomach lurched and his tail almost gave out from underneath him, “Rot?” He asked quietly, looking at Michael with a frown.

“Michael! Stop scaring him, it’s his first day.” Luke exclaimed, swimming over next to Michael and resting his head in the crook of the siren’s neck. Calum didn’t know how to feel about Luke yet, Michael seemed okay but he couldn’t keep up with Luke already and the newly turned siren was anxious enough as it is without a pretty blonde boy talking about eating people all the time.

The pale boy smiled sheepishly and shrugged, “You’re right, another time.”

“Have you eaten yet?” Luke blurted, eyes wide but a small nervous smile was stretched onto his face, “If you’re hungry, you can have some of my leftovers.”

**Author's Note:**

> [ let me know what you think ! ]


End file.
